Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Algeria and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Subhumans to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Audionom. All the underground hits.
All Japan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
The Divine Comedy,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Gong,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Minor Threat,
Animal Collective,
Interpol,
Bill Near,
Crispian St. Peters,
Unrelated Segments,
Barrington Levy,
Ponytail,
Trumans Water,
D'Angelo,
Mark Hollis,
This Heat,
Laurel Aitken,
Jeff Mills,
Black Sheep,
Accadde A,
Ken Boothe,
E-Dancer,
Lightning Bolt,
Lou Reed,
Soulsonic Force,
John Foxx,
Fluxion,
MC5,
Sound Behaviour,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Victims,
Joey Negro,
Pet Shop Boys,
Tomorrow,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Moleskins,
Maleditus Sound,
Grauzone,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Brick,
Malaria!,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Scrapy,
Smog,
Robert Görl,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Lower 48,
Piero Umiliani,
Nation of Ulysses,
Boz Scaggs,
Joe Finger,
Goldenarms,
Deakin,
Nik Kershaw,
Spoonie Gee,
Eurythmics,
The American Breed,
Susan Cadogan,
Royal Trux,
Section 25,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.